Scraps and Oneshots
by Zim'sMostLoyalServant
Summary: A collection of story ideas not long enough to stand on their own. Rated to be safe. Latest: The Halloweenies react to their failed attempt at invading the real world.
1. A Change Of Loyalties

**So, in order to try and break my writer's block, I've decided to start up a collection of story ideas I've had that aren't thought out enough to be posted on their own as full stories (or even as oneshots). I figure if I write a couple of these, it'll get my creative juices flowing enough that I can finally finish the next chapter of GA (plus, I've always wanted to do a collection).**

**Anyway, this first idea is based on a couple of pics I found on DA last year; only one of them got an accompanying story, and I felt it could have been written better. This isn't my attempt at a replacement story; the basic idea is just based on the same basic idea of those pics.**

**Read on!**

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**Scrap #1: A Change Of Loyalties**

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Zim tapped the fingers on one hand against his armrest angrily, while the other held a compress against the rather large bruise forming under one eye. One nearly broken antenna twitched, partially in pain, and partially in anger as he remembered what happened.

He had decided to get back at Dib for all the times the large-headed dirt monkey had broken into his base and spied on him, by giving him a taste of his own medicine. During a time when Zim knew Dib would be out of the house at a meeting of the "Swollen Eyelids" or whatever they were called, Zim and his robots had stealthily broken down the front door of the Membrane house and entered, in order to plant spying devices of their own. Unfortunately, Zim had made one of his _very_ rare mistakes: he had forgotten about Dib's sister.

Gaz had been in the house when Zim had broken in, and he had apparently made enough noise to distract her from her game… or maybe it was the door being thrown across the room and knocking the Game Slave out of her hands that had done it. Zim wasn't sure. What he _was_ sure of, however, was that Gaz had been _very_ angry with him.

Zim had honestly put up a good fight, but Gaz had a distinct height advantage (she'd grown enough over the past three-and-a-half years to stand almost a full head taller than Zim), and she was remarkably fast and strong for a human in her age group – especially one who didn't work out or even exercise, so far as he knew. Zim didn't even remember most of the short fight, and the next thing he knew he had regained consciousness on the sidewalk outside with Minimoose stuffed in his mouth and GIR in pieces around him (not that GIR seemed to mind).

After picking up the pieces, Zim had decided to temporarily abandon his spying plans and had limped home. Now, he was wallowing in anger while he waited for his wounds to heal.

"Stupid dirt monkey witch," he muttered, "When I'm done with the Dib-Stink, I will make her pay."

"Yeah, good luck with that," the computer commented.

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Zim hissed.

"Even if you do somehow beat Dib – and that's a pretty big if – then if you try and go after Gaz she'll probably just beat you senseless again."

"You dare mock Zim's combat abilities? !" Zim screeched, "That pig-smelly may have gotten lucky this one time, but-"

"_One_ time?" the computer asked, sounding incredulous, "Master, I think you're forgetting the time you captured Dib and were going to turn him inside out, only for Gaz to show up, break him out, and then kick your _c'horta_ all over the place."

"…Oh, yeah, forgot about that," Zim muttered, cheeks flushing in embarrassment as he remembered that particular incident.

"Squeak!" Minimoose added from his spot on the other side of the room, where he was helping put GIR back together.

"How would you know? ! I hadn't even built you yet!" Zim snapped at the floating WMD.

"And then there was that time she trashed that robot duplicate of Dib you built," the computer continued, "Or that other time-"

"SILENCE!" Zim shouted, a nearby screen cracking from the volume.

A few moments of quiet followed, before the computer dared to speak up again.

"I'm just saying, why do you make such a big deal about Dib when his sister is obviously such a bigger threat?" it asked.

"First of all, no female is superior to Zim!" the irate Irken snapped.

"I didn't use the word 'superior'," the computer said.

"And secondly," Zim continued, ignoring the computer, "Dib _is_ the bigger threat! The Gaz-Witch is too apathetic to be a threat. She never uses her abilities except when it involves her."

"Squeak!"

"Oh, and when the Dib-Worm annoys her. Good point, Minimoose."

"Hmm, maybe you can get her to get rid of Dib for you?" the computer asked with a laugh, "You know, save you all that hard work?"

Zim opened his mouth, probably to shout again, but then his mouth shut and a faraway look came over his face. A few moments later, a smirk crossed his lips and he began laughing.

"Why Master laughing so much?" GIR asked, speaking up for the first time during the conversation (mostly because Minimoose had just managed to fix his voice box).

"That's brilliant computer!" Zim shouted, "It's about time being programmed by the genius brain-meats of Zim kicked in and allowed you to come up with a good idea."

"…What?" the computer asked, completely confused.

"What you just said," Zim said with a wave of his hand, "I'll get the Gaz-Human and her skills working for me – her strength combined with the Zim genius of Zim shall make me unstoppable!"

"I was being sarcastic," the computer began to say, only to get interrupted by Zim's maniacal laughter at his "genius" plan.

"This isn't going to end well, is it?" the computer asked Minimoose.

"Squeak!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought," the computer said with a sigh.

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Four days later, Gaz was playing her Game Slave while sitting on the couch in her empty house; the house of course being empty due to the fact that Gaz had still been angry when Dib had returned from that Swollen Eyeball meeting yammering on about some recently captured Australian Chupacabra or something. Needless to say, he was now in the hospital with a broken leg and several fractured ribs.

Gaz smirked a little at that, but it morphed into a frown as someone knocked on the recently repaired front door. There was no way the pizza she'd just ordered was here already (as scared of her as the delivery service was, even they couldn't get to her house in less than four minutes), and it wasn't like she or Dib had any friends, so who was that?

Pausing her game and muttering threats to whoever was interrupting her, Gaz got to her feet and marched over to the door. Tacking a moment to crack her knuckles in anticipation of the pain she was about to inflict on whoever was on the other side of the door, the teenaged Goth then grabbed the doorknob and opened the door so fast it nearly popped off its poorly repaired hinges.

"Hi!"

"Squeak!"

Gaz paused and raised an eyebrow at GIR, standing on the doorstep in his stupid dog costume, and Minimoose, who was floating in front of her in his even stupider airplane costume. She groaned and crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance.

"Great, it's two-thirds of the alien moron squad," she grunted, "I thought I wouldn't have to deal with you idiots again so soon. What do you want?"

GIR opened his mouth, but nothing came out. A few seconds later, he shut his mouth and looked up at Minimoose with a confused expression.

"I forgot. What're we supposed to do again?" he asked, earning another groan from Gaz.

"Squeak!"

"Oh _yeah._ Now I remember!" GIR said happily. He then turned back to Gaz and opened his mouth again – and a cloud of aerosol-form chloroform was shot straight into her face.

Gagging in surprise, Gaz stumbled back, attempting to wave the gas out of her face. Unfortunately for her, the chloroform was already kicking in; her vision began darkening as she started swaying on her feet, and before she could even form a coherent threat, her legs gave out and she collapsed, blacking out as she hit the floor.

GIR gave a cheer as Minimoose launched a net from his antlers, which quickly wrapped around Gaz's prone body. The two robots then began making their way back towards Zim's base, dragging the unconscious teenager with them… naturally, no one noticed anything out of the ordinary.

XXXXXXX

Gaz groaned as consciousness slowly returned to her. Blinking to clear her blurry vision, she attempted to raise a hand to rub her throbbing forehead, only to find that she couldn't lift her arm. Confusion, frustration, and the subsequent anger brought her fully back to awareness, and she lifted her head to see what was going on.

She was lying on a metal table, cuffs locked around her wrists and ankles, pinning her in place. Judging by the machinery she could see around her, and the sudden memory of Zim's robots attacking her, she figured she must be in his lab.

"Zim!" she shouted, "Get your ass down here!"

A few minutes later, Zim's trademark evil laugh reached Gaz's ears as the Invader stepped out of the shadows and into her sight.

"Ah, hello Gaz-Slave," he greeted with a sneer, "Glad to see you're awake."

"I'm not you're fucking slave," Gaz snarled, "Now let me go or I'll-"

"Yes, yes, you'll 'send me into a nightmare world', blah, blah, blah," Zim interrupted dismissively, "You're hardly in a position to be threatening anyone, human."

"When I get out of here…" Gaz hissed, only to be cut off again.

"By the time you get out of here, Gaz-Human, your only thought will be to serve the glory of Zim and the Irken Empire."

That gave Gaz pause, and she raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?" she asked.

Grinning nastily, Zim reached for something behind Gaz that she couldn't see, and when he came back into her sight he was holding a large helmet with a visor over where the eyes would be and a series of wires trailing out of the back and out of view.

"What's that supposed to be? Creative headwear?"

"Funny," Zim said dryly, "Zim is going to miss your sarcasm human… actually, no I'm not.

"As for your question, it's simple really. This helmet is connected to a machine that is going to reprogram you. Your ruthlessness and hatred for your fellow worm-babies is now going to work for me."

"You're going to _brainwash_ me?" Gaz asked, too stunned to be properly angry for a moment, before her rage kicked in and she began struggling anew against the cuffs.

"Keep your stupid machine away from me you space freak! I'm nobody's slave! And when I get out of here, I'm going to tear you apart limb by freaking limb!"

Zim ignored her, holding onto the helmet with one hand as the other reached into a compartment of his PAK and pulled out a rag. He shoved it onto the struggling Gaz's mouth and nose, and the smell of chloroform overwhelmed her again as she once again blacked out.

Smirking at the sight before him, Zim tossed the rag aside and lowered the helmet onto Gaz's head, positioning it so that the visor and audio receptors were securely over her eyes and ears. He then flicked a switch just above the visor, causing several small robot arms on the interior of the helmet to activate. They quickly grabbed hold of her eyelids, prying them open and leaving her eyes vulnerable to the subliminal messaging she would receive while asleep.

"Computer, begin," he ordered.

In response, the reconditioning machine activated with a hum, and Gaz's body started thrashing as her subconscious attempted to fight off the alien brainwashing. Unfortunately, while Gaz's mind was as tough as she was physically, it was still no match for Zim's machine. Within minutes, every memory Gaz had, her entire personality, everything that made her who she was, was completely erased.

Zim smirked as Gaz slumped into a prone state, the limbs that had been straining against the cuffs going limp. That was the sign he'd been waiting for; the device had finished stage one of the process, and wiped all of Gaz's memories. She was now a blank slate. All he had to do now was transplant into her mind all the knowledge that would be needed to establish her new identity.

With a flick of one of his fingers on the control panel, the machine entered stage two. The visor over Gaz's blank eyes began flickering as information flashed across it – had Gaz been self-aware at the moment, she wouldn't have been able to identify what she was seeing due to the speed at which it was moving. However, in actuality this part of the system was similar to the flash-training programs Irkens received in their youths; the information could not be discerned now, but in the future Gaz would be able to recall it perfectly and at will. This particular information being the most advanced combat skills known to the Irken Empire; combined with Gaz's natural fighting instincts (which Zim had programmed the machine to spare), she'd be unstoppable.

As the information played across the screen, a message began playing through the speakers built into the helmet. Normally, Gaz would be strong-willed enough to withstand this stage of the process, but with her mind wiped, she was defenseless as the Irken technology began warping her mind and building her new personality.

"_You are not an individual,_" the computerized voice spoke into her ears, "_You are a servant of the Irken Empire; you exist only to serve your superiors. You have no ambitions of your own, you have no desires of your own, you want nothing other than to carry out your orders. It is the only thing that brings you joy; when you have no orders to carry out, you will do nothing but await further orders._

"_You are not a human being, and you have never been a human being. You are an Irken Biological Infiltration Unit. You were designed to match the appearance and biology of a human so as to hide amongst them, but you are a living Irken weapon. You exist only to help in the conquest of the planet designated: Earth. You are assigned to Irken Invader Zim, he is your superior and you will follow his orders without question._

"_Invader Zim has had your appearance modeled after the human designated: Gaz Membrane, sibling unit to Primary Mission Threat: Dib Membrane, for use of psychological warfare against him. You are not Gaz Membrane, and have never been. If anyone addresses you as such, it will have no affect on you, and you shall ignore them._

"_When Earth has been conquered, Invader Zim will decide your future assignment, and if he deems you no longer necessary for the service of the Empire, he shall terminate you. You shall accept such a fate without resistance, as you will no longer have a purpose._

"_You shall obey. You shall obey. You shall obey…_"

XXXXXXX

Zim chuckled to himself as he sat in his command chair, looking at his new servant, who was standing almost lifelessly in the middle of the room.

Gaz now wore an impenetrable skintight bodysuit, over which was a set of battle armor. The main piece covered everything from her lower thighs to her shoulders, with the Invader symbol painted on the front. Pads covered her knees, with additional armor in the front spreading up and down, forming a shield for the sections of her legs that were unarmored for mobility. She had combat boots on her feet, heavy-duty ones with steel-tipped toes and short-range jets attached to the heels.

Her arms had a similar setup; shield armor spread out from her shoulders and from the elbow guards, protecting her upper arms while her gauntlets stretched to just short of her elbows. These gauntlets allowed for increased strength, and also had weapons hidden in the wrists… thought her main weapon was now the blaster rifle the size of her arm currently strapped to her back.

She was also wearing a helmet of the same design as the one that had been used by the reconditioning machine. The reason for this was, on the extremely off chance that something caused a relapse to her original personality, the visor or the audio speakers would automatically readjust her. Those features would also allow the helmet to serve as a control mechanism, and even now were keeping Gaz in the trance state she'd been in since she'd had her memories wiped; Zim had had the computer dress her in the suit before he woke her up, so as to further reinforce the illusion that she was in fact an Irken soldier/weapon.

Deciding that he'd been building up to it enough, Zim pressed a button on his armrest console. Something flickered across the helmet's visor, and Gaz blinked once as the blank look faded away from her face – however, instead of the detached, almost apathetic look she usually had, it was instead replaced by a look of cold, logical determination. Noticing Zim seated in front of her, she instantly snapped to attention and brought her right hand up in a salute.

"Irken Biological Infiltration Unit G-Alpha-Zero-1, reporting for duty, sir!" she said in a slight monotone.

Zim smirked at that; it was so satisfying to see the once dominating girl reduced to a drone just waiting to be ordered.

"State your mission," he ordered briskly.

"To aid you in your conquest of the planet designated Earth by using my physical similarities to the dominant species to gather information. And in times when it is necessary, I shall use all skills available to me to combat any and all threats, even if it means sacrificing my own life to protect yours," Gaz… or rather, the being who had once been Gaz, rattled off in that same monotone, making Zim's smirk widen even more.

Yes, this was going to work out just fine…

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**A/N: Well, this turned out longer than I thought it would, but it's still not enough for a full story – this is as far as I've thought out this plot. I haven't been able to decide what direction to take it past this point: does Gaz somehow break free and hoist Zim by his own petard, or does she stay brainwashed and help him take over? If I ever decide, I might post this separately and continue it.**

**In the meantime, I might get another scrap/oneshot out before the next GA chapter, but in any case, please read and review!**


	2. An Eldritch Conversation

**A/N: Yes, I'm not dead. I know it's been a while since I've updated… well, **_**anything,**_** but I've been working on and off on that next GA chapter that's been giving me grief for so long. Anyway, I decided to at least throw something out there to show I'm still active, so here's a quick description of this scrap:**

**I've always wanted to do a crossover between Invader Zim and the Cthulhu Mythos works of H.P. Lovecraft and his followers. I don't know why, but there's just something about the idea of combining IZ's dark comedy with the Mythos' cosmic horror that I find fascinating. Unfortunately, I could never come up with a good idea for a story-length fic. However, I eventually did come up with this little idea – somehow, it just worked.**

**Oh, and I stuck a few notes at the bottom for the Lovecraft references anyone might have not gotten. That said, read on!**

**Disclaimer: Invader Zim and all related characters belong to Jhonen Vasquez. The Great Old Ones, Outer Gods, and all related beings belong to H.P. Lovecraft, August Derlth, and the other writers of the Cthulhu Mythos.**

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** Scrap #2: An Eldritch Conversation**

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Ms. Bitters raised one wrinkly eyebrow at the sight before her. A human sized mass of flesh and flailing tentacles, topped by a flaming tri-lobbed eye, sat curled around a chair at one of the tables in the Skool's staff break room, which oddly enough had an old fashioned tea set on it. However, Ms. Bitters' attention was instead drawn to the floor, where the Skool janitor was curled up in a ball, hair and eyes having gone white from shock, and foam spilling out of his mouth as he babbled incoherently.

"Was that really necessary?" she asked, pointing to the unfortunate janitor.

"It is not my fault his mind couldn't handle my visage," Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, messenger and soul of the Outer Gods, replied despite his lack of a mouth. Grabbing the teapot with one tentacle, he offered it to Ms. Bitters, "Tea?"

"No," she replied bluntly, slithering over to another chair and settling down on it.

"Suite yourself," he said with a wave of tentacles that passed for a shrug, before pouring the tea directly from the pot and onto his flesh, where the liquid was quickly absorbed.

"Couldn't you have taken one of your human forms?" Ms. Bitters asked, glancing to the janitor, who had started banging his head against the floor, "I don't really care, but whenever we lose a janitor, I'm the one who has to pick a new one."

"Apologies," Nyarlathotep said, sounding halfway sincere. With a wave of his tentacles, the tea set vanished as if it had never been there. Folding his tentacles into a relaxed position, he leaned forward so that his eye was level with her.

"So, Hecate my dear, why did you summon me?" he asked.

Ms. Bitters responded by punching Nyarlathotep in the eye so hard that it detached from his body and slammed into the wall, splattering into a pool of… well, "blood" wasn't the right word. Blood doesn't squirm and move with a mind of its own.

"Was it something I said?" the voice of the Crawling Chaos asked, seemingly coming from the air itself as the ichor on the wall reformed into the tri-lobed eye and floated back to its spot on its body.

"Don't play stupid," the old crone hissed, "I know you guided that stupid green pest here. He's got the smell of your influence all over him."

Nyarlathotep chuckled, a sound that would have driven the only human in the room insane if he hadn't been already.

"Ah, yes. Young Zerninim, one of my pet projects."

"Zerninim?"

"It's Zim's full name," Nyarlathotep said with a sigh, "I don't understand why he insists on the short version – why wouldn't he want a name that means 'world destroyer'? I'll never understand these mortals."

"Get back on topic!" Ms. Bitters snarled, "Why did you bring him here? !"

"Well, when his leaders sent him on a wild goose chase into the depths of space, I figured I'd guide him here," the eldritch abomination explained, "I've been having such fun whispering ideas to him – it's so easy to plant thoughts in the minds of the mad – that I figured it would be a shame not to try him out here on my favorite playground."

"But why send him to _me_?" Bitters snapped again, "It's bad enough I have to deal with the rest of these maggots every single day, but ever since _he_ showed up…"

"I thought you could use the entertainment," Nyarlothotep responded nonchalantly, "You're always complaining about how boring things are around here, after all."

"I'm not annoyed, I'm aggravated," Ms. Bitters hissed, "I've been stuck in this building for over a century, teaching generation after generation of these idiotic worms, and what do you do? You send me someone who's more annoying than all of them put together!"

"Mind your tone!" Nyarlothotep growled. All light and heat seemed to disappear from the room, and Bitters felt a rare shudder go down her spine, "Do not forget to whom you speak. I am the will of Azathoth given form; the whole of Creation is at my feet. Do _not_ whine to me about your petty little problems.

"It is not my fault you were bound to this land, or that the humans decided to build a skool around you. You have my sympathies, but bear in mind that you are still better off than most of our brethren – you could be sealed away in a deathless slumber like Cthulhu or Hastur, or bound in the Void like Y'golonac or your mother Shub-Niggurath (1). You still have moderate freedom, and an endless supply of mortals to torment, even if they are children, whom you despise so much.

"You are one of my favorites among our kind; unlike most of the others, you share the amusement I feel in toying with these lesser creatures, the fun that helps pass along the ages. Therefore, I will overlook your insolence on this matter to remind you that this situation of yours is merely temporary – soon, the insects that are the human race will be wiped out in a glorious blaze, and this world will be our paradise once more."

"You've been saying that ever since you helped Oppenheimer crack the atom," Bitters seethed, "I'm still waiting on that nuclear winter."

"I got close in '62."

"And then Kennedy – a mere _human_ I should remind you – defused the situation."

"Which is why I had the Mi-Go (2) assassinate him," Nyarlothotep chuckled, "You really _must_ invest in some minions. They can be quite useful at times. Speaking of which, whatever happened to that pet Shoggoth (3) I gave you a few decades ago?"

"Oh, I keep it in the Underground Classrooms," Bitters replied dismissively, "I just feed it the really annoying students ever now and then to keep it content… wait a minute, how did we get to talking about this? I called you here about Zim!"

"Oh, calm down, Hecate," Nylarthotep said with a laugh, "If you get anymore wound up, your human skin will rip off. And as for Zerninim, like I said, I thought you'd find his chaos entertaining, but you shouldn't have to deal with him much longer.

"You see, when I say that the end of this world is near, I _mean_ it – I've conferred with Yog-Sogoth, and he assures me that soon, the stars shall be properly aligned. Cthulhu will rise from R'lyeh, awaken the rest of the Old Ones to consume this world, and then they shall bring forth the Court of Azathoth from the center of the universe, so that the Outer Gods will reign once more.

"And more to the point," Nylarthotep concluded with what passed for a smirk, "the seals binding you to this place will be broken, and you will be free to kill every child on this planet, if that's what your black heart desires. Satisfied?"

"…Fine," Bitters reluctantly replied, "But I reserve the right to rip the little green bug apart if he keeps getting on my nerves."

"Fair enough," Nylarthotep said, "Now, if this is settled, I'll be on my way; I have work that's needed elsewhere."

And with that, the Crawling Chaos disappeared in a flash of light, leaving no sign that he had ever been there.

"Drama queen," Bitters muttered, before turning her attention to the maddened janitor, who had started chewing off his tongue. With a weary sigh, she got up, grabbed his leg, and started dragging him out of the room.

The Shoggoth was probably hungry.

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**A/N: Wow, this was terrible. I hope you don't all hate me for how short and lousy this was. Anyway, here are those reference notes:**

**1) Shub-Niggurath, the "Black Goat of the Woods With A Thousand Young": as you can probably tell from the name, she/it has lots of offspring; I figured "what the heck", and made Ms Bitters one of them.**

**2) The Mi-Go: a race of fungoid body snatchers from the planet Yuggoth, who some sources say worship and serve Nyarlothotep.**

**3) Shoggoths: a race of blob-like creatures created by Ancient Astronauts; one of the standard "go to" monsters of the Mythos.**

**Okay, now that this is done with, I'm going to crack down and hopefully finally finish the next GA chapter (but don't hold your breath on it). Until then, read and review!**


	3. Eviler Than Thou

**A/N: So, it's been a while since I've actually done anything, hasn't it? I know I made a New Year's resolution to update Galactic Armageddon, and I will try to get at least one chapter in during what's left of the year, but it turns out that making a resolution like that the same year you decide to go back to college is not a good combination. Still, I'll try to work around my schoolwork and focus on getting the next chapter out. This is just something that's been rattling around my head that I wanted to put up in the spirit of the season first.**

**On a related note, you might have noticed that I've discontinued "Journal of an Invader". Aside from being a distraction to GA, I've just lost interest in it. My apologies to those who liked it, but I don't think I'll ever get back to it.**

**Anyway, please read on.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Invader Zim, as you should know already.**

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** Scrap #3: Eviler Than Thou**

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Nightmare Bitters hissed in pain as she emerged back into her home dimension and hit the ground hard, the portal to the real world she'd forced open slamming shut behind her. She took a moment to collect herself before getting back on her feet/hooves; looking around, she saw that her minions had managed to finish off the robot that Zim had used to enable his and Dib's escape, and were all now looking at her in confusion and worry.

"Hey, what happened?" one of them asked, "How come you came back instead of opening the portal for the rest of us?"

"Did the humans have some kind of superweapon they used on you?" another asked.

Nightmare Bitters shuddered as she remembered what she had seen on the other side of the portal, especially that green, bloated _thing_ in the cul-de-sac.

"That place… was _awful!_" she snapped, to the confusion of the other Halloweenies.

"Huh?" one of them said, blinking the eyes covering his body, "I thought you said it was a wonderful place that we could destroy and torment?"

"Well, I was wrong," Nightmare Bitters reluctantly admitted, earning a shocked gasp from the crowd, "The real world is twisted, horrible, and filthy! It makes this place look like a paradise!"

"But… you said we could have a whole other world to play in," a child-sized Halloweenie pouted, tears forming in her red eyes.

Nightmare Bitters smacked her aside into the crowd, knocking several others over, as she made her way out of the alley.

"Oh, stop your whining," she snarled, "I'll think of something else. Just leave me alone for now."

With that, she pushed her way past the rest of the crowd, making her way back towards her lair at the Nightmare Skool. She was so wrapped up in her anger at the situation that she didn't hear the discontented grumbling among the other Halloweenies. Nor did she notice the glowing red eyes narrowed in malicious delight as they watched her crawl away from the shadows.

XXXXXXX

A while later, Nightmare Bitters sat slumped on her throne, wallowing in self-pity and anger. She'd been _so_ close to moving her people on to a new world, and she'd failed. Now all they had left was this ruined wreck they'd destroyed, and they were stuck with it.

She was pulled from her musings at the sound of doors opening and feet, hooves, tentacles, and other appendages moving across the floor. Looking up, she was surprised to see the Halloweenies entering the chamber in mass, quickly filling up the room. None of them said anything, and even more disconcerting, they weren't trembling in fear, as they usually did around her.

"What is this?" she snapped, "I didn't summon any of you."

"No," another voice hissed, "_I_ did."

Nightmare Bitters' eyes narrowed in rage at the figure that stepped forward, the crowd parting to let him pass.

"Zim," she snarled, "I thought I told you to never show your face here again."

Nightmare Zim's Joker-like grin pulled back, revealing more of his shark-like teeth than normal. He chuckled darkly as he crossed his long, mantis-like arms behind him, resting comfortably on the arachnid legs protruding from his back and supporting his legless torso.

"Oh, you did," he said, "But after your spectacular failure earlier, I was able to convince the others that it would be in their best interests for me to come back into the fold… and for you to, shall we say, retire."

"WHAT?!" Nightmare Bitters roared, jumping up and stretching to her full height. However, only a few of the assembled monsters pulled back in fear; the rest stood their ground and glared at her.

"You lied to us!" one shouted, "You said that the human world was our only escape, and then you made us give up on it!"

"What are you yapping about?" Nightmare Bitters growled, "There is only this world, and the real world."

"Wrong," Nightmare Zim said as he slowly walked closer to Nightmare Bitters' throne, arms still behind his back, "You see, the Large Headed One was not the only one studying looking into other worlds. I've spent plenty of time since you exiled me studying the same possible means of our escape, and you know what I've found? There are an _infinite_ number of alternate universes for us to make our way into. And most of them really are the pristine preying fields you were expecting on the other side of that portal you were so obsessed with.

"I've very nearly perfected the technology that will let us move from world to world, destroying at our whim. And all I've asked for in return is for the others to declare me their absolute ruler."

"Over my dead body!" Nightmare Bitters snarled, launching herself at Nightmare Zim.

"That's the idea," the twisted Irken replied, as he whipped one of his arms out from behind his back, revealing it to be clutching a plasma blaster. Nightmare Bitters' eyes widened, but before she could alter her movement or act to defend herself, the weapon discharged. The burning hot bolt of energy hit her dead center, the force sending her flying to crash into her throne.

Nightmare Bitters coughed up blood as she weakly clutched the wound in her chest. Nightmare Zim smirked as he lowered the blaster, smugly glaring down at his rival.

"Oh goodie, I was hoping that wouldn't finish you off," he said, his demented smile growing as he snapped the claws on his free hand.

A blur shot out of the crowd of assembled Halloweenies and hit the ground in front of Nightmare Bitters. The wounded monster found herself staring into the bulging red eyes of a robot the size of a great hound, wrapped in strips of green fur.

"GIR. Dinner," Nightmare Zim ordered with a laugh.

Nightmare GIR's mouth opened, revealing row upon row of razor sharp teeth, as it let out a combination of a roar and a demented giggle. And then, before Nightmare Bitters could do anything other than scream, the robot descended on her.

Most of the assembled Halloweenies looked away in disgust as their former leader was torn apart, happily refocusing their gaze on Nightmare Zim as he turned and started leaving the room.

"When he's done, throw what's left of her in the Pit of Fire-"

"Uh, she renamed it the Realm of Suffering and Restlessness," one of the Halloweenies cut in.

"…That's stupid," Nightmare Zim said after a moment of silence, before continuing, "Anyway, throw what's left of her in _there_, and then join me in my lab. I'll have the new portal ready soon.

"And Happy Halloween!" he added with a laugh as he exited, leaving the Halloweenies to watch as Nightmare Bitters was devoured.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

**A/N: So, has anyone else ever wondered why there wasn't a Nightmare Zim in Dib's nightmare world? I mean, you saw one for pretty much everyone else (if you look closely, there's even a Nightmare Nny in the background). Anyway, this is just my interpretation of what he'd be like.**

**In any case, Happy Halloween, and please check out this year's anti-Gaz story as well.**


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